“It is still fresh in the memory of the world how the Boers, after a terrible struggle lasting more than two and a half years, were at last obliged to accept through their representatives at Vereeniging the terms of peace submitted to them by the Government of King Edward VII. At the same time the representatives commissioned us to proceed to England in order, in the first place, to appeal to the new Government to allay the immense distress everywhere devastating the new colonies. If we did not succeed we were to appeal to the humanity of the civilised world for charitable contributions. As we have not succeeded up to the present in inducing the British Government to grant further assistance to our people in their indescribable distress, it only remains for us to address ourselves to the peoples of Europe and America.
“During the critical days through which we have passed it was sweet for us and ours to receive constant marks of sympathy from all countries. The financial and other assistance given to our women and children in the concentration camps, and to the prisoners of war in all parts of the earth contributed infinitely to mitigate the lot of those poor sufferers, and we take advantage of this opportunity to express in the name of the people of the late Republics our fervent thanks to all those who have charitably assisted us in the past. The small Boer nation can never forget the help it received in its dark hours of suffering.
“The people of the Republics were ready to sacrifice everything for their independence, and now the struggle is over and our people are completely ruined. Though we have not had the opportunity of drawing up an exact inventory of the destruction done, we have the conviction, based on personal experience, that at least thirty thousand houses on Boer farms and a number of villages were burnt or destroyed by the British during the war. Our homes with their furniture were burned or destroyed, our orchards were ruined, all our agricultural implements broken, our mills were destroyed, every living animal was carried off or killed. Nothing, alas, remained to us. The country is laid waste. The war demanded many victims, and the land was bathed in tears. Our orphans and widows have been abandoned. Besides, it is needless to recall the fact how much will be needed in the future for the education of the children of the Burghers, who are in great distress.
“We address ourselves to the world, with the prayer to help us by charitable contributions for our widows and orphans, for the maimed and other needy ones, and for the satisfactory education of our children. We allude to the terrible results of the war in order to bring to the knowledge of the world our urgent needs, by no means to inflame people’s minds. The sword is now sheathed, and all differences are silent in presence of such great misery. The ruin caused by the war is indescribable, so that the small amount which Great Britain is to give us, in accordance with the terms of surrender, even were it multiplied tenfold, would be wholly insufficient even to cover the war losses alone. The widows, orphans, maimed, needy, and children, on whose behalf alone we appeal, will receive little of this sum, and in most cases nothing.
“All contributions will be assigned to a fund to be called ‘General Fund of Help for the Boers,’ which will be devoted solely to supplying the wants of those for whom we are collecting, and to provide for their future. We solicit the hearty co-operation of the committees existing in the various countries of Europe and in America. We are now on the point of visiting these countries in succession with the object of establishing a satisfactory organisation.
“Botha.
“De Wet.
“Delarey.”
The lamentable representations of this manifesto naturally caused a profound impression—and the effect of them was not removed till late in the year when Mr. Chamberlain’s correspondence in relation to the matter was published. This correspondence merits more than superficial study by those truly interested in the pacification of the new Colonies, for the evil done by the pronouncements of the Boer “appeal” will live after them, while the good effected by the tardy publication of the Colonial Secretary’s refutation will probably be interred in the official mausoleum. To this end the opening despatch from Mr. Chamberlain to General Louis Botha, dated Downing Street, the 6th of November, is here appended:—
“Since the interview which you had with me at this office on the 5th of September an ‘Appeal of the Boer Generals to the Civilised World’ has been issued, many of the statements in which have, according to Press reports, been repeated and enlarged on in the speeches delivered by yourself and General Delarey and General De Wet during your tour on the Continent.
“The appeal, I regret to say, appears to me to convey an incorrect and exaggerated impression of the circumstances to which it refers, and though I have no desire at this time to enter into controversy, I cannot allow it to pass altogether in silence.
“In the first place I am at a loss to understand why the appeal should open with a statement that you have not up to the present succeeded in inducing the British Government to grant further assistance to your people. It is not, indeed, the intention of his Majesty’s Government to ask Parliament to authorise any addition to the free grant of £3,000,000—a grant which is itself without any precedent in the history of the world—but the promise of further assistance by way of loan on very easy terms, as provided by Article 10 of the Terms of Surrender, has never been withdrawn; and I think you will agree, on again consulting the record of our conversation, that there is nothing in the language which I then used which indicates any intention on the part of his Majesty’s Government to withdraw it.
“Further, the expenditure on the Burgher camps which, since the conclusion of peace, have to a great extent been transformed into organisations for enabling the people to return to their homes, and the cost of which has been about £200,000 a month, is being borne by his Majesty’s Government, and constitutes in effect a very considerable addition to the free grant.
“The cost of the camps since their establishment has exceeded £3,000,000, and there is no room for reasonable doubt that they have been the means of preserving the lives of thousands of women and children, and of providing the latter with a better education than they ever had the opportunity of enjoying before.
“I observe that in an article signed by you in this month’s Contemporary Review you make it a complaint that the concentration camps are still being maintained.
“It must be self-evident that, on the score of expense alone, it is the interest of his Majesty’s Government to abolish these camps at the earliest possible moment, and it is only in the cause of humanity that they continue to maintain this costly organisation.
“If they were to accept the inferences to be drawn from your statement they would turn out into the veldt thousands of men, women, and children whom it has been impossible to return to their farms immediately on the termination of the war, owing to the absence of sufficient transport and the scarcity of stock.
“They have, however, already provided for the return of large numbers of the population of the camps which had been reduced from 116,000 at end of May to about 34,000 in the last week of October.
“I observe that you are reported in the Press to have suggested in a speech at Paris that the British military authorities deliberately used the sufferings of women and children to induce their relatives in the field to lay down their arms, and in the resolution passed at Vereeniging on the 31st of May the sufferings of the women and children were given as a reason for surrender.
“No one deplores more than the British Government the high mortality in the camps during the epidemic of measles and pneumonia, but nothing was spared that money or science could afford to reduce it, and for the last six months the average total death-rate in the camps has been about 21 per 1000 per annum, a rate which must be much lower than any which obtained before the war in normal conditions.
“It is, therefore, clear from the statistics that at the actual time of the surrender there could have been no cause for anxiety as to the condition of the women and children then in the British camps; and in confirmation of this view I may remind you that neither at the time of your conferences with Lord Kitchener in February 1901 nor in the discussions which preceded the acceptance of the Terms of Surrender was any request made for special provision for widows and orphans.
“On the contrary, the request made on both these occasions was that the sums offered as a free grant by the British Government should be applied to the payment of notes and receipts for goods requisitioned by the Boer commandoes, in many cases from persons of considerable means. To this proposal his Majesty’s Government objected, and while willing that these notes and receipts should be accepted as evidence of war losses, they stipulated that the grant should be applied for the benefit of the destitute, or, in the words of the Terms of Surrender, ‘for the purpose of assisting the restoration of the people to their homes and supplying those who, owing to war losses, are unable to provide themselves with food, shelter, and the necessary amount of seed, stock, implements, &c., indispensable to the resumption of their normal occupation.’ As at present advised, I believe that the sum allotted will be amply sufficient for the purpose; but, should more be required, there is one source from which a substantial addition may be fairly expected.
“His Majesty’s Government are aware that large sums were remitted from the Transvaal to Europe during the war to be expended in the interests of the South African Republic.
“They have no desire to question the expenditure of this money so far as it was legitimately devoted to the purposes for which it was intended, but they cannot doubt that a large balance still remains which would properly come to them as the successors of the late South African Republic, and which they would be prepared to add to the fund provided for the relief of the distressed burghers and their families. I venture to think that in this matter your wishes will coincide with mine, and that you will give me any assistance in your power to discover the persons to whom the money was entrusted, and to obtain from them a statement of account showing the expenditure and the amount of the balance which remains over.
“I may add, with regard to the camps, that the reference in the manifesto to the pecuniary assistance furnished by foreign sympathisers appears to rest on a misconception. It consisted in the Transvaal of 2646 bales and packages, chiefly containing clothing and miscellaneous stores, which were brought up from the coast at military expense, and in the sum of £562, 2s. 2d. received and distributed through the Burgher Relief Fund. I have not yet received exact information as to the money contributions to the camps in Orange River Colony, but it was on a similar scale, and provides no ground whatever for an unfavourable contrast with British liberality.
“On the general question of your appeal for help for the widows and orphans, the maimed and the needy, and for assistance in the education of the children, I desire to say that the Colonial Government is making itself entirely responsible for the maintenance of all destitute orphans, including their food, clothing, supervision, and education. Large orphanages are already in existence at Irene in the Transvaal, and Brandfort and Springfontein in the Orange River Colony; and suitable provision is also being made for widows.
“The Government have been, and are, making themselves responsible for the education of the children. In the last year of the war £100,000 was spent on education in the Transvaal, and £32,500 in the Orange River Colony. At the date of the signing of peace the number of children in Government schools in the Transvaal was 28,000, and in the Orange River Colony 14,500. As a contrast to these figures it may be mentioned that under the late Governments the total number of children being educated never exceeded 15,000 and 9000, in the South African Republic and Orange Free State respectively.
“With regard to your statements as to the desolation caused by the war, I would point out that it was inevitable that much damage should be caused in consequence of the prolongation of hostilities long after there had ceased to be any reasonable doubt as to the issue of the war. Though the principal centres, such as Bloemfontein, Kroonstad, Winburg, Heilbron, Harrismith, Bethlehem, Ficksburg, Ladybrand, Thaba N’chu, Bethulie, Fauresmith, Jagersfontein, Koffyfontein, Boshof, in the Orange River Colony, and Johannesburg, Pretoria, Potchefstroom, Klerksdorp, Heidelberg, Standerton, Middelburg, Lydenburg, Pietersburg, Nylstroom, Lichtenburg, Zeerust, Rustenburg, in the Transvaal, are practically untouched, it is no doubt the case that a large number of farmhouses and buildings have been damaged or destroyed by one or other of the belligerents or by natives. The value of such buildings in South Africa is, however, in most instances not very great, and the pecuniary loss is probably more than compensated by the increased value of the land. The heaviest loss, and that temporarily pressing most hardly on the people is, no doubt, the loss of their stock; but the statement that every living animal was taken away or killed is a great exaggeration. A recent census taken in the Orange River Colony shows that, excluding animals belonging to the military and Repatriation Department, there are now in the colony over 120,000 head of cattle, 700,000 sheep and goats, and 27,000 horses. Similar figures for the Transvaal are not yet available, but the local government is spending very large sums to supply stock in both colonies. The Repatriation Department in the Transvaal is using 36,000 animals for transport alone. It has already issued some 20,000 head of stock to the farmers, and is in a position to issue another 35,000 by December 1. Assistance is being given in the Orange River Colony on a like scale, and ploughs and implements are being supplied as far as it is possible. So far, indeed, from being a desert the country will, if rain is abundant, be extensively cultivated at the end of the year; and it is the earnest hope of his Majesty’s Government that the strenuous efforts now being made by the local governments, seconded by the co-operation of the people themselves, will result in bringing back a degree of prosperity in no way inferior to that existing before the war.”
This despatch satisfactorily disposed of many vexed questions, and comfortable corroboration of the statements made therein is to be found within the pages of General De Wet’s account of the “Three Years’ War.” There, though the General complains of the hardships endured by women and children, he can offer no suggestion as to how these sufferings might have been averted. On May 16 General Botha is reported to have said:—
“Throughout this war the presence of the women has caused me anxiety and much distress. At first I managed to get them into the townships, but later on this became impossible because the English refused to receive them. I then conceived the idea of getting a few of our burghers to surrender and sending the women in with them.”
On the 29th of May, General De Wet, speaking in favour of continuing the war, said:—
“I am asked what I mean to do with the women and children. That is a very difficult question to answer. We must have faith. I think also we might meet the emergency in this way. A part of the men should be told off to lay down their arms for the sake of the women, and then they could take the women with them to the English in the towns.”
Later, General Botha said:—
“When the war began we had plenty of provisions, and a commando could remain weeks in one spot without the local supply running out. Our families, too, were then well provided for. But now all is changed. One is only too thankful nowadays to know that our wives are under English protection. The question of our women folk is one of our greatest difficulties. What are we to do with them? One man answers that some of the burghers should surrender themselves to the English and take the women with them.”